Mécanismes d'action des fines et des granulats de verre sur la réaction alcali-silice et la réaction pouzzolanique

Abstract

Recycling composite glass with different colours in order to be manufactured into new glass products is at present not economically viable. Therefore, the search for new issues other than stockpile areas or dumping sites could be a serious opportunity. To a certain extent, one of the possible solutions is to use the recycled glass in manufacturing cements and in the preparation of concrete mixtures. However, it is essential to manage the two main behaviours that the glass can have when used in cement-based materials: (1) the use of glass as coarse aggregates reveals harmful behaviour related to alkali-silica reaction; (2) on the other hand, it can result in useful behaviour related to pozzolanic reaction if used as fine particles. Furthermore, the significant alkali content should not be overlooked as their mass corresponds to about 13% of the total mass of the glass and as they may activate the alkali-silica reaction. An experimental programme was conducted to provide answers to the various questions raised about the use of glass in cement-based materials. The first part of this work was primarily devoted to the evaluation of the reactive potential of glass in mortars (alkali and pozzolanic reactions). At this stage, nine classes of glass particles ranging from 3[mu]m to 2.5 mm were considered. Then, fine glass particles were used in order to counteract the negative effect of some classes of coarse aggregates having revealed alkali-reactive behaviour. The second part of this work was performed to study the mechanisms that could explain the behaviours of fine and coarse particles in aqueous and concentrated environments. Different answers have been proposed to explain the observed behaviour in terms of grain sizes of glass.